Well, if this is true, good business processes and other enabling technologies will be critical to move things from “in our heads” to “in our processes”. Just today I was reviewing a BPM solution with a customer that made it possible for call center employees to do a vast array of technical work with minimal training, thanks to really well-guided software processes.

The rise of the Millennials

I’m sorry, but this particular point makes no sense. The basic premise is that everyone is hosed because they don’t have proven leadership ability. I’m sure the same was said of Generation X, and we turned out all right.

Rapid pace, and too many tools

The incredible number of software tools in use begs for simplification. But ripping out core systems – even from acquired companies – is expensive, relative to layering on business processes over the top. I think we’ll see more and more BPM overlaid over acquired systems, rather than fully replacing them.

VentureBeat focuses on these technology trends to help save us:

Big data for employees, not just data scientists

Many people struggle to use Excel, and pivot tables, let alone “big data”. I wouldn’t count on software magically making us better able to understand large amounts of data. More importantly would be collecting or filtering the noise out so that we can focus on the signal. We’re a long way away outside of process-oriented systems… Interestingly in BPM or process-oriented systems, the data collected is usually highly relevant to business users…

Privacy

I’d say more likely, the lack thereof.

Mobile-first

All business operations and processes will eventually be impacted by mobile. BP3 and other BPM vendors will continue to invest in this area.

Permeable and extended enterprise

We see quite a bit of process work is actually oriented toward coordinating “outside” resources from vendors and partners. Expect more of this.

Beyond the social enterprise

As cool as all the new tools are, there’s a lot of ambiguity as well – Dropbox, Evernote, Box, Google, Jive, Slack, Asana. I assume that we’ll see eventual consolidation in enterprise software around the platforms that seem to work best for this – but right now it is a free for all.